It’s amazing to think that all of this came about due to an idea by Steven Spielberg, back in 1997. It was Spielberg who insisted that his newly hatched development company, Dreamworks Interactive, work on a realistic military game set in World War II, even though many of the game developers working for him felt it was a bad idea. They wanted to go in a more fantasy direction, viewing WWII as old-fashioned and a poor setting for a game

Spielberg had his way and the game that emerged, in 1999, was Medal of Honor, published by Electronic Arts. It was a smash hit and a major critical success (IGN gave it a 9.3). It led directly to the formation of Infinity Ward in 2002. That company’s first game was Call of Duty, an attempt by Activision to get into the military shooter market being dominated by its bitter rival EA. Many of the developers who worked on Call of Duty had previously worked on Medal of Honor, and had honed their skills working according to Spielberg’s inspiration.

Author Jamie Russell writes, “Spielberg, who was then in post-production on Saving Private Ryan came into the Dreamworks Interactive offices and outlined his idea. He saw Saving Private Ryan as an educational experience as much as an entertainment property...He’d watched his teenage son and his friends play Goldeneye on Nintendo 64. Could Dreamworks build a World War II shooter, he wondered, that would let them learn about the conflict through playing?”

But the game developers weren’t convinced. Producer Peter Hirschmann recalls, “People were really dubious. They said, ‘World War II is old, it’s got cobwebs on it. People want ray-guns, hell-spawn and laser rifles’. The idea of doing something with historical relevance set in a low-tech game environment was a challenging sell."

Spielberg insisted on historical accuracy and brought in military advisers and history buffs, now common practice among game developers. Medal of Honor’s one major discrepancy was its lack of blood and gore, pulled from the game prior to release due to controversy over game violence in the wake of the Columbine shootings.

The game was a major hit, but Spielberg’s connection to gaming would fade. Dreamworks Interactive was sold to EA along with the Medal of Honor brand. Throughout the next ten years, multiple Medal of Honor games would be released, but eventually the public tired of WWII shooters. The series would be eclipsed by its rival Call of Duty, itself created from the Medal of Honor team, which began in WWII but has since addressed multiple combat zones including, with the next game, the near future.

Russell writes, “The continuing problem for the games industry is that while every filmmaker thinks they can build a game, very few understand the unique challenges of game design. To date, the Medal of Honor series remains Spielberg’s greatest contribution to interactive entertainment.”

But the story isn’t over yet. Medal of Honor is back, with this year’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter. These shooters, rooted in real-life conflicts, were inspired by Spielberg’s vision and his insistence that shooting games could address real life combat on an epic scale.